Youth Voice: Afterschool Partnerships Expand Learning for DCPS Students

This week we’re bringing you the testimony of Nana Asare, an alum of DC SCORES. At last week’s April 14 budget hearing on DCPS, Mr. Asare was joined by Katrina Owens, DC SCORES’ chief of staff and a former DCPS teacher. A recent DCAYA survey of 51 community-based organizations like DC SCORES showed that 83% of kids served after school by those organizations in DC this year were in DCPS. We believe that when DCPS schools and staff actively collaborate with quality programs like DC SCORES to ensure harmony and integration, it yields the best possible experience for students. Nana’s testimony tells such a story.

My name is Nana Asare.  I am a DC SCORES alum and 19 years old. I graduated from Wilson SHS in 2014. I have been a student at Johnson State College where I participated on the soccer team. I joined the DC SCORES program at Brightwood Elementary School in 4th grade. It changed my life.

DC SCORES alum Nana Asare (far right) testifies to the DC Council Committee on Education.
DC SCORES chief of staff Katrina Owens, who also testified, is seated to his right. (April 14, 2016)

My family emigrated from Ghana when I was 2.  Before joining the DC SCORES team I was hard headed, stubborn and had a lot of behavioral issues.  My principal encouraged me to join the DC SCORES team and it changed how I saw myself, my school, and my community. From that day on, DC SCORES and soccer became a huge part of my life. 

DC SCORES provided me a place to succeed and belong.  As I continued in school I continued playing soccer and engaging with SCORES. As a student at Wilson SHS I was a member of the varsity soccer team.  I also volunteered with DC SCORES every summer as a Jr Camp Counselor. It was important to me to make sure that kids currently in the program had an opportunity to find success and their voice like I did.

Testimony Highlights from Performance Hearings

With DC Council Budget Hearings just over a week away, we thought we'd recap and share some highlights from testimony that member organizations have provided during Performance Oversight Hearings at the Wilson Building.

Here's an excerpt from Bethany Henderson's testimony, the Executive Director of DC SCORES, provided at the performance oversight hearing for DC Public Schools:

Research shows that increased academic achievement won’t be reached simply through more instructional time. With income gaps widening, free enrichment opportunities like the ones we offer are increasingly essential to helping DC’s at-risk children achieve successful school outcomes.  Unfortunately, the need in DC is great.  Thousands of low-income children currently have no access to expanded learning programs. Indeed, over the past year our own waiting list has swelled to 16 schools.  This represents a serious opportunity gap that threatens negative long-term consequences for these children and our city. 

DC SCORES and DCPS share the same goal: that low-income DCPS students succeed in school and in life.  Community partners like DC SCORES can and do play a powerful role in realizing that goal.  Not only do we provide programming, but we bring significant private funds to the table.  For every dollar of local government funding we receive (very little of which comes from DCPS), we raise and deploy more than two dollars of private money.  This year alone we are bringing well over $1 million in private resources to bear on student outcomes.  Continued and expanded collaboration, coordination, and data-sharing between DCPS and expanded learning providers will only enhance student outcomes. 

Here is part of Frank Cervarich's testimony which he provided for the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities' performance oversight hearing, as Deputy Director for Young Playwrights' Theater:

In the past twenty years, YPT has engaged over 12,000 students in our artistic process by integrating free playwriting programming into local schools, and reached over 85,000 audience members with free, professional productions of our students' plays. We integrate our programming directly into local public schools, leading every student to write their own play and bringing professional actors into
the classroom to perform their work.  

We work to not only improve student literacy, but to inspire our region’s underrepresented young people to realize the power and value of their voices and stories. Our impact is deep and enduring. Students tell us their experience with YPT inspired them to attend college, often as first-generation applicants, and pursue careers paths from the arts to education to neuroscience.We began in 1995 serving 20 students in one classroom. Today we serve over 1,500 students in all eight wards of Washington, DC, four times more students than in 2010.  We work to meet the Mayoral priorities, and we have been doing so for over twenty years.

And in case you haven't seen last week's blog post yet, here's an excerpt of testimony which Ademir Delcid, a student in Latin American Youth Center’s Guide to Post Secondary (GPS) Program from the performance oversight hearing for the Department Of Employment Services and the Workforce Investment Council:

During my 2 years of being in LAYC, I got to meet a wonderful team of advisors. I was given the opportunity to work with Adriana, Scholastique, Ella, Diana, Alexis and Loren. Meeting them and talking with them made me realize that they knew what they wanted for us students, which was to succeed and be prepared for the next chapter in our lives. Being a senior, I do not have the opportunity to continue working with them, however all that they have done in the short amount of time were worth the little time. Overall what each and every individual in this program has helped not only me but other students achieve is the progression, impact and determination to succeed in and out of school. I have witnessed firsthand how my life has been impacted and I thank each and every member of LAYC GPS for their never ending spirit to see me and others be prepared for college and life. I see each and every individual that have worked with me as more than advisors, they are my family and LAYC is my home.

It's testimony from DCAYA organizations, community members, and youth themselves that really make a difference as our representatives make the annual policy and funding decisions whose impact lasts for much more than a single fiscal year.

So what can you do? Here's a simple list, of which we ask you do at least one:

• Sign our #ExpandLearningDC online petition
• Bookmark our website's event calendar, for upcoming Budget Hearing dates
• Check out this blog from January, which lets you know what Committee each agency and hearing falls under, as well as how to sign up to testify yourself

That's it for now! And as always, let us know if you have any questions.

Holiday Highlights from DCAYA's Amazing Members!

It's a quiet week here in the office, so we thought we'd take this week's blog post to share some Twitter highlights of Holiday greetings and happenings from DCAYA members over the past week or so. This selection is in no particular order. Enjoy.

Thanks to all our Elf Store volunteers on Sat! Thanks to you, our kids were able to buy gifts for their families! pic.twitter.com/UkXGjzstII

— Jubilee Housing (@jubileehousing) December 14, 2015

Afterschool Succeeds with In-School Support: Reading Partners in DC

As part of Afterschool Awareness month, DCAYA has featured the work of our community-based partners throughout the month of October. To wrap up our series, we look at the work of Reading Partners with DC’s elementary schools, a successful partnership due to the combined effort of the community-based organization working with teachers, parents, administrators and students.

The first grade student had just traced the letter ‘C’ on the whiteboard. Together, we were coming up with words that start with C: cookies, can, cat.  We brainstormed a few more, and then he drew a picture of a cat on the back of his letter card.  

“C!  Cat!  C-c-c.  COOL!” he exclaimed, giggling.  

By the time his mom appeared at the door to pick him up from our weekly tutoring session, he had chosen a new book to keep at home, and she beamed at the sight of him eagerly flipping through the pages. As she gathered her son’s jacket, bag and lunchbox, our tutor shared how great a job her son had done reading and identifying rhyming words.

Just a few months ago, afternoon tutoring sessions like this one were just a vision for Bancroft Elementary, a bilingual school in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of DC. Under the requirements of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education has designated Bancroft as a Focus School, meaning it is a school in need of targeted support to address large achievement gaps between students.

Expanding a Partnership in Service to DC’s Kids

As part of Afterschool Awareness month, DCAYA will be featuring the work of our community-based partners throughout the month of October. Read on for more on the exciting expansion of afterschool arts, sports and civic service programming from DC SCORES!

Fifteen. Every day when I wake up, that number flashes before my eyes. It is imprinted on my brain. It is the number of schools currently on the waitlist for programs from my youth development nonprofit DC SCORES, which recently finalized a partnership with D.C. United with the goal of serving more District youth.

DC SCORES provides free after-school programs and summer camps to low-income 3rd-8th graders across the District. Our whole-child curriculum thoughtfully integrates the art of poetry, the sport of soccer, and the civic experience of service.  

Mind, body, soul.  

In the neighborhoods and schools we work in, DC SCORES typically is the only opportunity kids have to participate in an organized team sports league. We frequently offer young children their only chance to explore the literary arts for fun and to experience performing original work on stage. We often are the first people who not only ask schoolkids living in poverty how they want to change the world, but who also give a team of kids the tools to do it.

Although DC SCORES has expanded rapidly the past five years, the demand for our programs has grown even faster.  

Why? The young children DC SCORES works with face incredible challenges: hour-plus commutes to school; the responsibility of raising multiple siblings; violence on their streets; no stable home or family support structure.

We help at-risk kids stay on track by surrounding them with a supportive team of peers and committed adult mentors, giving that team the opportunity to safely and creatively express themselves through both arts and sports, and helping them experience that they can change the world around them.  

You don’t have to take my word for it; instead take the words of Ingrid, Claudia, or Christian M. — all DC SCORES alumni.

A new depth of commitment

What keeps me up at night is worrying about the many more Ingrids, Claudias, and Christians out there whose schools we’re not in. Who aren’t, as Christian says, getting to be “part of something greater,” something “to look forward to every day no matter what else was going on in my life,” “something that gives me a pathway from step A to step B, a goal to achieve.”  

Being able to serve all of the children who need us was a big motivator behind our recently announced long-term strategic partnership with D.C.’s Major League Soccer team D.C. United. (Read the press release.)  

Although our organizations have worked together in varying capacities for years, this new, long-term partnership cements our relationship and makes it possible for us to change many more kids’ lives together than either organization could on its own.  

The partnership goes far beyond simply giving DC SCORES’ poet-athletes enhanced soccer experiences and access to major league expertise (though it does that, too!). It symbolizes a new depth of commitment by D.C. United to the community. Programs previously run by D.C. United’s United Soccer Club program have been consolidated into DC SCORES, and two members of D.C. United’s leadership team have joined DC SCORES’ Board of Directors.  

While D.C. United is contributing some limited up-front capital to seed this partnership, it is not really a financial transaction. The partnership’s true value to the children of Washington, D.C., is the willingness of D.C. United to leverage its brand name and corporate access to drive new levels of philanthropic investment to DC SCORES. This year, we are serving 2,000 children. Our goal: expand to 3,000 children in three short years, an objective we’ll only be able to achieve with increased support from community members throughout the District and beyond.

While the partnership is a catalyst for helping us wipe out our growing waitlist; everyone else’s continued support – and those interested in joining our team and advocating for DC children – can make it a reality.

Helping D.C.’s kids succeed on the playing field, in school, and in life is what DC SCORES is all about. We are excited by the potential of this partnership and a growing supporters base to help even more kids do just that.

DCAYA is grateful to this week's blog author, Bethany Henderson, Executive Director of DC SCORES. Want DC SCORES in your school or neighborhood? Please complete their new school application.

Expanded Learning for All

October is here. Shocking I know, but before we get mired in the pre-winter angst let’s all take a deep breath and enjoy all that October has to offer. No, I’m not talking about the sugar rush of Halloween. October is Lights on Afterschool Month. In short, October is when youth, parents, providers, advocates, policy makers and funders celebrate the powerful impact expanded learning programs have on our community, and commit to supporting them in the year to come.

In many ways DC is fortunate. We live in a city that is rich with youth development opportunities. Starting with the littlest of humans, programs like Jump Start and the The Homeless Children’s Playtime Project ensure all children start school ready to succeed. At the elementary level, parents take a collective sigh of relief knowing that their youngster has the opportunity to participate in programs that support whole child development. Programs like People Animals Love, FLOC, Jubilee Housing, and Horton’s Kids start to tease out and develop areas of cognitive strength while building competencies in areas of weakness. 

At the middle school level -- those 3-4 years that represent a time of greatest risk and greatest reward in youth development -- we can have faith that organizations like DC Scores, Higher Achievement, Kid Power, Inc., and Sitar Arts Center are connecting this vulnerable age group to positive opportunities, social networks, and caring & consistent adults.

By high school, expanded learning takes on a whole new level of nuance. As Urban Alliance, BUILD, Life Pieces to Master Pieces, Beacon House, and Sasha Bruce have demonstrated, expanded learning opportunities at the high school level means many things all at once. They are opportunities for tutoring, experiential learning, SAT/ACT prep, post-secondary and career exploration and finally, for continued pro-social development that can inform a lifetime of healthy decision-making.

High quality, expanded learning programming during non-school hours and the summer, is one piece of the educational pie.  One that cannot be underestimated: it’s how we excite disengaged learners, engage non-traditional learners, and allow high fliers to fly. It’s a rising tides lifts all boats scenario.

Unfortunately, only a fraction of our youth have the opportunity to participate. Decreases in funding to the DC Public School Out of School Time Programming and The Children Youth Investment Trust Corporation (among others) has gradually diminished the degree to which DC dollars support expanded learning opportunities.

So, if you believe that educational aptitude is not defined by test scores. If you want to know that we are cultivating investigative, not simply rote learners. If you know a youth who may not always excel in the classroom but thrives in a wood-shop, debate hall, on a theater stage or on the field. If you are a parent who wants to know that your child is participating in positive activities during the gap between the end of the school day and the end of the work day. Then October is your call to action. 

Follow DCAYA during the month of October as we rally together to call, email, tweet at, and send letters to Councilmembers and Mayor Gray letting the DC government know why expanded learning matters to us!  

By speaking up for your child, your family and your community, you can help us make sure the lights stay on for all DC youth. 

Maggie Riden is the Executive Director of DC Alliance of Youth Advocates. As a child, Maggie learned to read by participating in an after school theatre program which provided her with the confidence to overcome her reading disability. While she no longer participates in theatre, she credits the expanded learning program for having a profound impact on her adult life.

  

To read more about youth issues in DC you can FOLLOW us on Twitter, LIKE us on Facebook and VISIT us at www.dc-aya.org.

Message from DCAYA Board Member and Executive Director of DC Scores Amy Nakamoto

With election season upon us, some of the District’s key issues for all of its constituents have taken center stage. Those issues have predominantly been education, public safety, economic and jobs development, and education (oh, did I already mention that?). While DC SCORES does not and will not endorse any one mayoral or council candidate over the other, we do feel this is the time to bring to light what is important for our participating poet-athletes.

As an after-school provider working intensively with 25 public and public charter elementary and middle schools in Wards 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8, we believe strongly that a high-quality education should encompass well-rounded experiences that contribute to the formal and informal learning a student undertakes. For DC SCORES, this includes the opportunity to be active, creative, and part of a team in a non-formal school environment.

We feel that funding, policies, practices, and expectations at all levels of District government should not impede, rather enhance, our (or any other quality program’s) ability to provide a transformative experience for youth in the critical after-school hours. Youth spend more time out of school than in, which must not be overlooked when thinking about what youth most need to develop into functioning, educated, contributing adults.

An example of such a policy is the recently passed Healthy Schools Act (HSA). The act mandates, among other things, that over the next several years schools modify and enhance the opportunity for physical activity by changing formal physical education, expanding sport offerings, and/or including physical activity in after-school programs.

This Council-led bill passed in late spring 2010. In order for something as important as this piece of legislation to be realized, the Mayor’s office and the Council need to support funding and policies in accordance with this act. It is what is right for youth’s health, and their growing minds and bodies. This is just one example of what is important to DC SCORES.

Broadly, DC SCORES has the ability to thrive, expand, and increase our impact on the community in a District that is forward-thinking, resourceful, and collaborative. Changes and improvements to all systems (education, safety, and economy) impact directly or indirectly thousands of District youth every day.

Since youth can’t vote, I’d like to push our supporters to think hard about the policies and decisions made on a District level that will make the youth experience in DC a worthwhile one.

-- Written by Amy Nakamoto, Executive Director, DC Scores